2023 Elections: How Political Parties Can Substitute Candidates

Ahead of the 2023 general elections, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has published the final list of presidential and National Assembly candidates.

Also, except in two states where there are legal battles, the commission has also published the list of governorship and state House of Assembly candidates for the polls.

Having submitted the names of their candidates to INEC, which has, in turn, published the same, political parties can no longer change or substitute their flagbearers.

This is in line with Section 33 of the Electoral Act 2022.

Withdrawal and death: Two conditions for changing candidates

According to the electoral act, a political party is not allowed to change or substitute candidates save for the death or withdrawal of the candidate.

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2023 Elections: List of governors contesting for second term in office and their chances

In the case of the death of a candidate, the political party affected shall, within 14 days of the occurrence of the event, hold a fresh primary election to produce and submit a fresh candidate to INEC for the election concerned, according to Section 33.

Procedure for candidate withdrawal

According to Section 31 of the Electoral Act, a candidate can only withdraw from the contest not later than 90 days to the election.

To effectively withdraw, the candidate will notify his or her political party via a letter signed by him/her and delivered personally to the party that nominated him/her for the election.

The political party will then convey such withdrawal to INEC not later than 90 days to the election.

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2023 elections: List of states where governorship polls will not hold and why

According to INEC's timetable for the 2023 general election, the last day for withdrawal by candidate(s)/replacement of withdrawn candidates for Presidential and National Assembly elections is July 15, 2022.

The timetable shows that the presidential and National Assembly elections will hold on Saturday, February 25, 2023, while the governorship and state Houses of Assembly elections will take place on Saturday, March 11, 2023.

For Governorship and State House of Assembly elections, the last day for withdrawal by candidate(s)/replacement of withdrawn candidates is August 12, 2022.

2023 elections: States where governorship polls will not hold

Meanwhile, though Nigeria has 36 states, governorship elections will hold in 28 states in 2023.

There won't be (governorship) elections in eight states, according to INEC.

The electoral body explained that the affected states are no longer part of the general elections circle due to court judgements that nullified the election of their governors at different times in the past.

Source: Legit.ng